Why Blog?: March 2006

Last Days II

3/21/2006 08:46:00 PM

Tuesday, 7:36 AM. I am just about ready to fall asleep on my feet. I've been here at the office since 8PM, manning the offshift operations with Lem. It was a relatively quiet, issue-free night. Only one issue being tossed back and forth between customer and client, with my company in between trying to hold this thing together. It still took up most of our time, but I'd rathered that it was one issue than a whole bushel of 'em. Count your blessings.

Apparently the attempt to do a perfect emulation of an existing sytem, never ends up perfect. And there's no way to find out about that until the day you roll it out into the world. It's like a newborn baby, you never know if it's got buck teeth or a double chin until it comes out and you see it for the first time. But then you realize that it's not a life-altering defect (depends on where you stand with buck teeth and double chins. I definitely have them off the facial-features-that-makes-one-cute category. Nothing against those quirks, I'm just more of a dimples kind of guy.). You live with it, or you take it to the family plastic surgeon for a little "tweaking."

It's like that at work now. There's a lot of things that we're seeing for the first time. We're fumbling along, albeit nicely, and we're still in control. I could do without the added stress, but it's nothing that I can handle. Good times.

Last Days

Monday, 9:47 PM. Two more nights, 3 more days. Then I will be (un)officially on leave. I will be heading out to San Fransisco and spend a few days with my parents, before I finally go back to Manila.

I finally received my retooled itinerary. I had to contact the travel agency to have my return trip fixed because of all the changes in my schedule. I'm gonna be hopping on planes once again, my least favorite part of travel. Imagine sitting in a plane 30,000 feet from the ground for 24 hours. Wicked sick. Now if only I were in 1st class, I'd shut up and won't be complaining as much.

I can't wait to get home. I can wait to go to the beach and just bum out. I can't wait to go back to the gym and burn off all the pizza I have consumed for the last two months. All 13 slices of 'em. Pepperoni. Mmmmmm.

Sticking it to the Man

3/17/2006 12:10:00 PM

How many employees get to hang out with the president of their company? Eleven.

That was how many we were anyway, as we hung out with our president and his wife. We were treated to dinner and wine in a little Greek restaurent in Rockville, my first time to eat Greek food. I had Chilean sea bass (recommended by the waiter who kept calling me "dude" and kept pronouncing it "doooood" like he was on something.) After dinnger they took us to their home for coffee and dessert and, get this, laughs. Now how many people can say that they've joked around with their company president, while he and his wife served them cake and coffee?

It was a very interesting night, I'll tell you that.

I'm lucky to have worked for a bigwig who is very down-to-earth and stayed as closed to the small guy all the time. He listened to us, he laughed and ate with us, he even gave us a tour of his nice house. (Cool game room, by the way. Any game room that has a foozeball table will always be categorized as cool in my list. I'll get one of those when I become president. You just wait.)

His wife was also very warm and accomodating. She was genuinely interested in us Filipinos and our culture. She never stopped asking questions. Ever since we got seated at the restaurant until we were sipping tea in their kitchen at home, she asked a lot of questions, like she had a whole bunch ready, scribbled on some piece of napkin she'd steal glances at when the last one gets answered. Too bad I was with a quiet bunch, and I was doing most of the talking. I attempted jokes, tried to be witty, tried to laugh at the right time. Hopefully I'll still have my job tomorrow.

The most interesting part of the evening was the house tour. They have a very very nice house (did I mention the game room?), though they live by themselves, unfortunately without the blessing of children. Well, Mr. President, in behalf of my silent friends huddled together in the corner of the room, we would like to thank you for your confidence in the Manila office. We thank you for the opportunity to get to know you out of work. I mean, come on, if you'd had approached me at work, I'd have tinkled all over myself. There can be no one more intimidating than the Man. But tonight was a nice gesture, and we appreciate it.

And you let me sit in your chair. The kind they probably only sell to presidents of companies or to famous people, or rich people with bad backs. You are the man. Now I know what I wanna be when I grow up, er... grow older. I wanna be president. Then I'll sign papers, hire and fire people, treat my employees to lunch everyday, and sit in my expesive chair. And I will have a foozeball table in my office. I will be cooler than you.

If you noticed that I mentioned that I "worked" for the Man, in the past tense. That's because it's his last day today. He's moving to a different company. So we appreciate the gesture and the good wine even more. I hope my order was expensive enough to make you at least blink and say I have good taste. Just let it be. It was your treat, and you can afford it.

Seriously, good luck. And thank you.

After 10,000 years

3/15/2006 01:02:00 PM

...I finally moved in to my assigned cubicle! Actually, it was more like 3 weeks before my cube was finally made ready for human settlement. Before that I had been occupying an empty cube in the middle of a dozen others. In the wrong side of the office. Away from the people I was supposed to be working with. All because the Admin guys couldn't find a decent chair, and took too long installing the phone that I needed. Well, this afternoon after I came back from lunch, my phone was hooked up, and I stole somebody's chair from what was at first glance an empty cube. No absent-minded or distracted co-worker fell to the floor during the theft.

Now I have less than 2 weeks to enjoy my new office territory, or what Miki the secretary referred to as "settling in." (Thanks Miki for finally working up the courage, or satisfying your curiosity, whichever it was, and finally taking notice of a Filipino guy sticking out of that weird crowd, you finally got me moved. You may have saved my career.)

The only problem I have with my niche is that it's right by the door that leads outside to the inner balcony overlooking the lobby. So foot traffic is expectedly heavy all the time, people walk in and out every minute or so. My desk is against the cube wall opposite the door, so anybody stepping in and looking my way will no doubt see how much of a slacker I have been. I mean, I can't pretend to work all the time, can I? I am suddenly subjected to attentive passersby, some of whom are my bosses and can get rid of me like a booger. Looks like my office reading sessions of Highfiber and Sports Guy are to be shelved for now. It's gonna be all hard work from now on. I'm too lazy to pretend and too motivated to let it all go to waste.

But at least I got the cube.

On to other news, after another 10,000 years (or less than 2 weeks from now), I will be heading back home to Manila! Yippee! We are scheduled (on paper) to leave for home next weekend. Lem will be taking that route, I, on the other hand, will be on a plane to San Fransisco to visit my parents for a few days. All expenses paid, of course. By me. I'll be heading back to Manila on Monday, which I've been excited about ever since I left from there. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for travel and visiting places you've never been before. This just kinda overwhelmed me a bit. I find that good because I have finally gotten that first trip out of the country down, so the next few should be more enjoyable, and hopefully, NOT work-related.

I've heard that school is out now. Summer vacation. I wish we had that for work too. 2 months of doing nothing. Probably unrealistic and improbable, but I am young and still drag around high school and college baggage, er, memories, so I beg to dream about stuff like this once in a while. Have a happy summer vacation, young readers under 21. Don't smoke and drink moderately, be safe and responsible.

More news and senseless stories after a few thousand more years (2 or 3 days, more or less. I wish.)

Big fat mess

3/09/2006 04:11:00 AM

Grass is the same everywhere. It's green, cows it eat, and turns brown during the summer. It's all the same. You know why I suddenly hate grass? Coz there's so much of it here. It makes me think of the Philippines, and it makes me feel homesick.

Now that I've got that out of the way...

Less than 3 weeks to go. This training thing isn't going as I'd hoped. More than a month of mostly doing the same things I can do in Manila. I think we are undertrained, if there ever is such a word. I don't know whose fault it is. It can't be the project leader's, she dropped off before we even got here because she had to go on maternal leave. Probably not our manager's, who just jumped at the idea to get me and Lem up here so they could tie us down with a metal ball and chain and we get to never leave GXS for as long as we live.

Whose fault is it?

Not mine. I don't care. I welcomed the training-slash-vacation, welcomed the temporart change in environment. I don't care. I'm getting paid to be here. In fact, I signed that damned contract. The we-send-you-to-America-you-our-bitch-forever contract. Oh snap.

Actually, forever translates into two years. And I'm still going to be 3 years from 30 by then. I'd say it's not a bad deal. I just hope I'm not in the same position I'm currently in now -- ass in the air.

Urly, looks like I've learned a few things from reading your blog.

See, the reason I'm ranting is that after all the time we've been here, we've only been utilized for the project for, oh, I'd say about 4 days. Out of 35. I can shoot a better percentage than that at basketball. Our short Tampa trip netted us about a couple of those days for training. While the rest are little patches of documentation, short meetings, crisis calls, and real issues, all of which we had to kinda put together by ourselves.

I kinda like challenges, so again, I don't care.

Attention Rona

3/03/2006 05:58:00 AM

I have some pictures for you. *Evil Laugh*

What's Going On???

A lot of my friends' blogs bordering towards inactivity lately. Posting either once every 2 weeks, or barely once a month at all. One even went on a 'blog leave.' Hmmmm. I smell a conspiracy. The are being given more tasks that they can barely blog anymore! Or school is becoming such a pain that blogging now takes a backseat to studies?!?! More time with the wife and kids? Are you kidding?? What is this world coming to???

I'm sorry. This onshore assignment drives me nuts sometimes.

I'll find something else to read for the meantime. Maybe a real book. Haven't seen one of those in a while.